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Battery technology developed by a Sunderland engineer will soon appear in vehicles and factories from Tynemouth to Taipei, through a deal worth around £40m to expand into the lucrative Asian technology market.

Stephen Irish said the energy storage group he set up in 2012, Hyperdrive Innovation, has signed a deal which means his modular battery pack will be manufactured in Taiwan and sold on to the makers of construction equipment and energy storage systems.

Through the deal, Foxlink, which also manufactures parts used in Apple products, will set up a replica of the Hyperdrive Sunderland factory in Taipei to make around 20,000 battery packs every year under the Hyperdrive brand.